Northeast Large Pelagic Survey Collaborative Aerial and Acoustic Surveys for Large Whales and Sea Turtles Final Report
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● OCS Study BOEM 2016-054 NORTHEAST LARGE PELAGIC SURVEY COLLABORATIVE AERIAL AND ACOUSTIC SURVEYS FOR LARGE WHALES AND SEA TURTLES FINAL REPORT U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Office of Renewable Energy Programs www.boem.gov Northeast Large Pelagic Survey Collaborative Aerial and Acoustic Surveys for Large Whales and Sea Turtles Final Report Authors Scott D. Kraus, Ph.D., Sarah Leiter, Kelsey Stone and Brooke Wikgren New England Aquarium Boston, MA 02110 Charles Mayo, PhD. and Pat Hughes Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies Provincetown, Ma 02657 Robert D. Kenney, Ph.D. University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography Narragansett, RI 02882-1197 Christopher W. Clark, Ph.D., Aaron N. Rice, Ph.D., Bobbi Estabrook and Jamey Tielens Bioacoustics Research Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology Cornell University Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA 2 DISCLAIMER This report was prepared for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management under Cooperative Agreement number M12AC00024 by the Northeast Large Pelagic Survey Collaborative comprised of the New England Aquarium, Cornell University’s Bioacoustics Research Program, the University of Rhode Island and the Center for Coastal Studies. This report has been technically reviewed by BOEM and it has been approved for publication. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the opinions or policies of the US Government, nor does mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. REPORT AVAILABILITY To download a PDF file of this Office of Renewable Energy Programs report, go to the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, website at: www.boem.gov/Renewable-Energy-Completed-Studies This report can be obtained from the National Technical Information Service; the contact information is below. US Department of Commerce National Technical Information Service 5301 Shawnee Rd. Springfield, VA 22312 Phone: (703) 605-6000, 1(800)553-6847 Fax: (703) 605-6900 Website: http://www.ntis.gov/ CITATION Kraus, S.D., S. Leiter, K. Stone, B. Wikgren, C. Mayo, P. Hughes, R. D. Kenney, C. W. Clark, A. N. Rice, B. Estabrook and J. Tielens. 2016. Northeast Large Pelagic Survey Collaborative Aerial and Acoustic Surveys for Large Whales and Sea Turtles. US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Sterling, Virginia. OCS Study BOEM 2016-054. 117 pp. + appendices. Cover Photo: North Atlantic Right Whale, Jessica Thompson, Center for Coastal Studies 3 Table of Contents LIST OF ACRONYMS ................................................................................................................................. 6 LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................................... 9 LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................................................... 11 BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................... 15 OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................................................ 17 METHODS .................................................................................................................................. 17 AERIAL SURVEYS ................................................................................................................................... 17 Analytical Methods for Aerial Detections ..................................................................................... 18 ACOUSTIC SURVEYS ............................................................................................................................... 23 Analyses of Acoustic Recordings .................................................................................................. 25 Determination of Species Presence .............................................................................................. 25 Acoustic Data Analysis for Five Whale Species ............................................................................. 29 Right Whale Analysis .................................................................................................................... 30 Acoustic Detector Evaluation ....................................................................................................... 31 Acoustic Detection Range............................................................................................................. 31 AERIAL AND ACOUSTIC DATA SYNTHESIS ................................................................................................... 32 AMBIENT NOISE ANALYSIS ...................................................................................................................... 33 Acoustic Signal Processing ........................................................................................................... 33 Spectral Trends ............................................................................................................................. 33 Cumulative Percent Distribution ................................................................................................... 33 RESULTS ..................................................................................................................................... 34 AERIAL SURVEY EFFORT ......................................................................................................................... 34 Aerial Detections .......................................................................................................................... 34 ACOUSTIC SURVEY EFFORT ..................................................................................................................... 36 LARGE AND MEDIUM WHALES ................................................................................................................ 36 Sightings and Sighting Rates of Whales ....................................................................................... 36 Vertical Camera Detections of Large Whales ............................................................................... 38 Variability of Large Whale Sighting Rates .................................................................................... 38 Endangered Large Whale Sightings per Unit Effort ...................................................................... 39 Large whales with Calves ................................................................................................................... 40 Behavior of Large and Medium Whales ....................................................................................... 40 Summary of Large and Medium Whale Presence ........................................................................ 40 NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALE (EUBALAENA GLACIALIS) ............................................................................ 41 Aerial Sightings of North Atlantic Right Whales ........................................................................... 41 Right Whale Sighting Rates and Variability .................................................................................. 41 Right Whale Sightings Per Unit Effort .......................................................................................... 42 Hot Spot Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 43 Abundance of North Atlantic Right Whales ................................................................................. 43 Demographics .............................................................................................................................. 44 Acoustic Detections of Right Whales ............................................................................................ 45 Summary of North Atlantic Right Whale Presence ....................................................................... 51 4 FIN WHALE (BALAENOPTERA PHYSALUS) ................................................................................................... 52 Aerial Sightings of Fin Whales ...................................................................................................... 52 Fin Whale Sighting Rates and Variability ..................................................................................... 52 Fin Whale Sightings per Unit Effort .............................................................................................. 53 Abundance of Fin Whales ............................................................................................................. 54 Acoustic Recordings ..................................................................................................................... 54 Summary of Fin Whale Occurrence .............................................................................................. 56 HUMPBACK WHALE (MEGAPTERA NOVAEANGLIAE) .................................................................................... 57 Aerial Sightings of Humpback Whales .......................................................................................... 57 Humpback Whale Sighting Rates and Variability ........................................................................